


We'll Never be those Kids Again

by felicityollies



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Secret Identity, Secrets, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-02-17 15:38:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13080018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/felicityollies/pseuds/felicityollies
Summary: Oliver Queen is the quintessential high school student; he has “decent” grades, he runs track, and has a booming social life. To the outside world he’s got the perfect life. After an incident that changed his view, he took to becoming something else late at night. They call him The Hood and he does a very good job of keeping his identity hidden. At least until Felicity Smoak takes an interest in Starling City’s vigilante.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though it's _my_ birthday, I wanted to give you all something. I promised you all this story awhile ago, but there were some setbacks, mostly me not giving this story the proper amount of time it needed. But it is here and I hope you all enjoy it! I couldn't have made it here without Sim (the-silverforked-sky), thank you darling! And thank you Nelly (smoakqueenz) for creating such beautiful artwork!

  


Tuesday morning, loud chatter filled the hallways as students slowly shuffled into the school. All around her, she could hear them catching up with friends or complaining about how early it was. However, Felicity kept to herself. Lost in thought, as she grabbed her books from her locker, her mind was focused on the strange happenings of last night. There was a shift occurring in the city, being driven by something or rather someone. Something good, but strange.

“Woah, what a shiner,” Tommy Merlyn’s loud exclamation from across the hall, cut through the noise, grabbing everyone’s attention.

She turned her head slightly, like many other students did, and saw that the boy was speaking to Oliver Queen. He was indeed sporting a nasty black eye.

“It’s nothing,” he muttered, waving his friend away, “Tripped down the stairs, smacked my eye on the railing.”

Oliver Queen was a star athlete and weirdly graceful for being a tall seventeen year old, yet everyone was supposed to believe he fell down the stairs? It was plausible, but not likely. He didn’t even have any other bruising that she could see and he did happen to be wearing his usual polo and shorts.

“Where are the rest of your bruises then?” she challenged.

He blinked and looked towards her with a frown. Felicity swallowed hard. His clear blue eyes pierced through her, like he was seeing her for the first time. She could feel his scrutiny. He was trying to assess her and it was really freaking her out. She stood her ground and refused to show just how much it was bothering her.

“Eavesdropping, Smoak?” Tommy said before Oliver could answer.

“It’s not eavesdropping when you shout everything you say,” she yelled the last half of her sentence.

“I do not!” he yelled back at her.

She chuckled, but she let her question go. She didn’t know Oliver and he didn’t know her. What business did she have making assumptions and accusing him of lying? Shaking her head, she closed her locker and wandered off to class before they could say anything else. Hopefully they would forget about her and her intrusive question soon. They were rich and popular and probably had more interesting things to talk about than Felicity’s keen observant nature, but she liked to keep a low profile in school. She wasn’t really known amongst her peers and she preferred it that way- choosing to focus on her school work instead. The only reason Tommy even knew her last name was because they got stuck seated next to each other in World History and he frequently tried to cheat off of her test papers. It never worked out for him, but that didn’t stop him from trying.

She sat in her first period class. Front row as usual.

“The Hood was spotted again,” Laurel whispered behind her.

Felicity leaned back slightly, listening in.

“My dad said he stopped another mugging.”

“He’s crazy,” Helena mumbled.

“Well, yeah,” Laurel snorted, “Who goes around in a hood, shooting off arrows at criminals.”

“Robin Hood,” Helena laughed. 

On and off again for about a month a strange person was running around the city, taking on small-time criminals with a bow and arrow, and only a hood hiding their identity. It was weird, but the guy (or girl) seemed to be doing some good. A bow and arrow was a unique and kind of archaic choice of weapon, so it made her wonder about the age of the person in question. Could be someone older with a different kind of skill set. Or…

Her eyes moved up as Oliver walked into the room. Someone young enough to think themselves invincible and get reckless with a sport they were trained in. Maybe even a distaste for other weapons such as guns. Someone with even enough free time to do all of this, which automatically eliminated about half the young adults of Starling City. It wasn’t exactly easy to keep ends meeting and survive in this city and the economy. She flicked her gaze low when she thought he might look her way. This was the only class they had together and she was sure that he hadn’t realized she was in it at all. Until she opened her mouth in the hallway. She listened to the shuffle of his feet as he walked away from her and to the other side of the room where he usually hid in the far corner.

Felicity opened her notebook and jotted down the latest findings about the vigilante. She was going to have to do more research on her own time, but the few clues she’d gotten this morning would be helpful.

Another mugging, which she’d already known about.

O’s beat up face and thin excuse.

She added those to her list and scribbled down a few notes beside each. She couldn’t stop herself from being so curious about the Hood. He seemingly popped up out of nowhere part way into the school year, sometime in October. The first time was a corner shop robbery. No weapons, just his fists, and her logical deduction from the facts she’d come across, was it probably happened by chance. Wrong place- or maybe right place- right time and the vigilante decided to keep going.

Or someone got inspired by someone else’s act of courage.

There were so many possibilities and she just had to know what the answer was. It was a mystery and she hated mysteries. They needed to be solved. The Hood was one big puzzle and she was going to be the first one to put it together. The police sure as hell didn’t know who he was. They couldn’t even get a good snapshot or drawing of him.

“Ms. Smoak,” It sounded like her teacher had been calling her name for awhile. He snatched up her notebook, “We don’t have time for you to be,” he paused to read the first line of her notes, “Studying up on Starling City’s vigilante problem.”

He slapped the notebook back down on her desk. Her skin became hot and flushed as students all around her giggled.

“Do you even have your homework done?”

She frowned, of course she did. She’d had all of her homework done early since the beginning of the year. What was Mr. Wilson’s problem?

She pulled out the stack of homework, “Everything for this week is done. I haven’t turned it in because you requested at the start of term I wait until everyone else turn their work in so that-”

“So that I don’t lose it,” he muttered.

“So I don’t make anyone feel bad,” she shoved her homework away.

He narrowed his eyes slightly at her, but that was the end of the conversation. She was right and he was wrong. That happened a lot with her teachers.

When class was over a few students made sure to bump into her as they walked by.

“Nerd.”

“Geek.”

“Obsessed with a freak and does all of her homework early. No wonder she doesn’t have any friends.”

Felicity held her head high, letting the words bounce off of her. These kids didn’t matter. She was going to graduate soon enough, be done with these people, and get out of this city to go to MIT.

Picking up her bag, she quickly got out of there.

She had a study period next, opting to take in the nice day outside on the bleachers, she managed to make it there without further incident. That several gym classes had also decided to take advantage of the weather outside, might have also been a reason she decided to be out there. She bit down on her lip as Oliver ran past her. Other than being her top suspect for the Hood, he was kind of cute. If you’re into the bratty rich-kid type. Which she was not.

Mostly he was fast as hell. So much so, that he was on the school’s track team.

There was only one other person on the team that was up to par and maybe a little bit faster than him and that was Barry Allen. But where Oliver had muscle, Barry had height and lankiness making him a faster runner. Not that she firsthand knew much about athleticism, but she did understand biomechanics.

“Do you really know something about the vigilante?”

Felicity squeaked.

“Sorry,” Iris West giggled, “Everyone is talking about what happened in Mr. Wilson’s class.”

Felicity turned towards the other girl. Iris was one of those girls that looks like she walked right out of a high fashion magazine, she was popular, but unlike a lot of popular girls she was really nice. She was also head of the school newspaper and the yearbook committee.

“What are they saying?”

“You have a notebook all about the hood,” Iris’ eyes sparkled.

“I’m sorry, Iris,” she said, “All I have is what the police have said. Just keeping track for fun.”

Iris deflated.

“So, you out here watching Barry?” she tried changing the subject.

Iris nodded, making her curls bounce, “Yes, he and Oliver, but don’t tell Barry,” she giggled again, “Oliver is just so cute.”

Felicity started to nod in agreement, but changed her mind, “Who do you think is going to win?” she asked instead.

“Could go either way, but I think Oliver is a teensy more competitive, meaning he’s probably going to try harder to kick Barry’s butt even if it is just practice.”

This time she did nod.

Felicity leaned forward, watching both boys run. They continued to edge each other out. Back and forth. Back and forth. Until Oliver finally pushed forward taking the last couple of inches of the track.

“Good job,” she could hear Barry’s muffled voice down below.

“Yeah, sure,” Oliver mumbled.

“Alright, boys!” Coach Waller called them back.

“I should get back to my article,” Iris shook her head, “Did you know that they switched to a 60% meat 40% soy product in the cafeteria? You will when you read the school paper on Friday,” she said the last few words in a sing-song voice.

Felicity scrunched up her nose.

Iris chuckled, “I have to go hound Principal Chase too, catch you later.”

The other girl ran off and Felicity wondered if she really would be back. It would be nice to have a friend like Iris, but she was under no delusions that there was anything interesting enough about her to warrant spending time with her. Iris was just a really nice person.

“The bell rang, Ms. Smoak,” Coach Waller yelled at her.

She scrambled out of her seat and packed her things away. “Sorry,” she said, throwing her bag over her shoulder, “Didn’t hear it.”

She really needed to stop getting lost in her own head. Especially if it meant getting yelled at by Ms. Waller. She was a terrifying woman and honestly Felicity didn’t know how she was a high school coach and physical education teacher instead of some... like expert torturer for the government.

She ran down the bleachers and across the grounds. Felicity stumbled and ran into another student’s back.

“Sorry,” she squeaked.

He turned around and suddenly she was face to face with Oliver Queen.

“Really sorry,” she ran around him and moved as fast as her legs would carry her towards the school building.

Felicity had somehow found herself observing Oliver today in her contemplations about the vigilante, but she didn’t want to be up close and personal with him. No matter the little outburst she had that morning, trying to catch him in a lie. The last thing she needed was for Oliver to actually be the Hood and for him to think she was stalking him, which wasn’t entirely untrue.

For the rest of the day she kept her head low and managed not to start anything. When she got home, she went to her room to hide away. Her mother wasn’t home, but she wasn’t really in the mood to be sociable or deal with her mom anyway. She tinkered away with a laptop until she heard a loud thud outside her window.

“A smart person would just stay here,” she said, “But a curious person needs to get up and look.”

She slid from her bed and cracked the window open. Leaning out of it, she looked down and then up, finding an arrow in her windowsill. She tugged it from the wood and retreated back inside. A note was tied to the arrow.

“Stay out of my business,” she read out loud.

She narrowed her eyes at the note. Someone at the school was the Hood or an informant to the vigilante. And Oliver Queen was still at the tippy top of her list. The note was obviously meant to scare her off, but she wasn’t afraid of the bow wielding vigilante. Maybe she should have been, but this warning just pushed her to want to figure it out even more. Whoever they were knew who she was and how to find her. How could she not want to find the person responsible?

She was just going to have to try harder. And be sneakier about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know what you think!
> 
> tumblr & twitter: felicityollies


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it’s only been exactly three months since I posted the first chapter |: but here we are! You can thank alexiablackbriar13 for getting on my butt about posting this lmao.

Oliver bolted upright in his bed. Another nightmare, but it was the same every night. Every damn time. He could see it so vividly. He walked with his little sister down the street, and it had seemed like a perfectly regular- if amusing due to Thea’s constant jabbering- evening. He had promised the seven year old he would take her to her favorite candy shop. The Queen Manor was a distance away from the rest of the city, so he’d driven them to Thea’s favorite park in the city and then they’d walked to the shop. Or rather he’d carried her piggyback. He didn’t mind, she was such a little thing, he could barely feel her on his back anyway. Talking and laughing, It was supposed to be a great end to a fun evening, but instead they were held up at gunpoint.

_“Ollie,” his sister cried._

_“Hand over everything you’ve got.”_

_Oliver stared down the barrel of the gun. He’d been taken by surprised, terrified; he had to do something but he didn’t know what his next move needed to be. Thea, he had to protect her. He couldn’t stand there and do nothing. She stood beside him, scared and shaking, her eyes wider than he’d ever seen them._

_“Hey, back off, man,” he hissed at the guy, his voice trembling a little. And that’s when he made his first big mistake._

_He responded too late and grabbed Thea by the shoulder, trying to get her behind him. All he ended up doing, was pulling the mugger’s attention to her instead._

_"I said hand over everything you got,” the gun clicked, veering towards Thea’s head._

_He swallowed his own fear and went for the gun, grabbing onto it and the mugger’s wrist. The other man pushed him back and smacked him in the head, hard, with the butt of the gun. Oliver hit the ground in front of Thea. He tried to push himself up onto his knees while he listened to the sound of his sister crying. The mugger kicked him in the side three times and told him to stay down._

_“Ollie!” Thea screamed._

_“I will shoot you if you try that again,” the mugger spat, “Hand over the goods.”_

_Oliver reached into his pocket and shakily handed him his wallet. When he seemed like he was going to leave, the mugger turned back around and grabbed onto Thea’s necklace. She shrieked. It was a sound he had never heard before and never wanted to hear again._

_“Leave her alone!” he shouted, but the man tugged the necklace, ripping it from her throat and forcing her to topple forward onto the ground._

_The mugger ran off, leaving them there. Oliver got up and pulled Thea into his arms._

_“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, “So sorry.”_

The guilt from that night nagged at him constantly. If he had just listened or been able to actually do something about the mugger. Then there were the stupid police who couldn’t even figure out who was behind the attack. Oliver gave them the best description that he could, but still nothing.

He slid out of bed and quickly changed his clothes. Instead of lying around in bed for another few hours, thinking about his dream…. his nightmare, he was going to head downstairs the the Queen’s indoor gym. He took his frustrations out on a punching bag. Right hit. Left hit. A few quick jabs with his right. He hadn’t wrapped his hands and he could already feel the abuse his knuckles were taking. He didn’t care. Oliver imagined the mugger’s faces and punched as hard as he could, sending the bag swinging. Again and again he swung his fists into it. He pictured every thug that thought they could pick on someone smaller and weaker. They weren’t going to get away with it again.

Slam. His fist met the punching bag with a loud smack.

“Shit,” he hissed.

His knuckles on both hands were bloodied and bruised.

* * *

He wore a long hoodie at school, attempting to cover up his hands. That Felicity girl had already caught him in a stupid lie about his eye. Who was she anyway? He’d never spoken to her before and yet she was calling him out in front of everyone. At least no one seemed to take what she said seriously. He would have brushed it aside if he hadn’t seen her again in his first class. Oliver hadn’t even been aware of her before, but apparently she was fully aware of him. She had a notebook all about the Hood and that was not okay.

He was working very hard at not getting caught, yet here was this girl who seemed to be on top of him.

If that weren’t enough, she literally ran into him on the field going back into the school. Why was she outside while he was in gym? She seemed startled when she realized that she’d been caught stalking him. That meant she was too close to the answer of who was behind the mask. He took her fear and the opportunity it presented and tried to scare her away from him.

It had to work.

He didn’t know for sure if she knew it was him, but he couldn’t take the chance that she was going to figure it out. Part of him wanted to get a look at that stupid notebook just to see what she knew.

He spotted her coming down the hall, books and notebooks in one arm and her phone clutched tightly in her other hand. In a split second decision he walked towards her and shouldered her hard enough to get her to drop her things. Everything clattered to the floor, including his own notebook and textbook. He whipped around and bent to start picking things up.

“Sorry,” he forced out an apology.

“No, no, no, I wasn’t watching where I was going,” she stammered.

He picked up each notebook, holding it so he could at least see the first page. When he found the right one, he shoved it under his notebook and scrambled to his feet.

“Wait,” she called to him, “I think you have…. wait Oliver!”

But he was already jogging down the hallway. He dipped into the boy’s restroom, so he could get a quick look at the notebook.

“Shit,” he muttered.

She had notes on every single one of his missions. Every person he’d taken out. She had notes on him, Oliver not just the Hood. She knew. Felicity fucking knew. Or at least had a very good hunch. There were a few other names in her notes, but he was at the top of her list. He only hoped that she would take his warning seriously.

With a sigh, he headed to class.

“Oliver,” she shot up from her desk as soon as he stepped inside, “I think you have one of my notebooks.”

He blinked at her, “Oh,” he looked down in his arms, “Here, must’ve picked it up in the rush to get to class.”

“But you were almost late,” she snatched the notebook from him, “You didn’t look at it did you?”

“No,” he started to turn away from her, not wanting her to catch him in another lie.

“What happened to your hands?” she asked.

He looked down at them and shook his head, “None of your business,” he sneered.

“No need to be an ass,” she hissed.

He shot her a glare, but continued to his desk.

The hours ticked by at a snail’s crawl. He just wanted to get to gym class and forget about his nightmare and Felicity. Coach Waller usually let him and any of the other track team members do some practicing, but then again she actually did coach the team. He changed clothes, but kept his hoodie on; he didn’t care if he got it sweaty.

Everything seemed fine until Felicity came walking into the gymnasium. He had half a mind to walk up to her. To ask her what the hell she was doing there and accuse her of stalking him. But he didn’t want them to have anymore contact.

“Ms. Smoak,” Waller said, “I’m so glad you could join us.”

Felicity nodded.

“Ms. Smoak will be attending this class for the rest of the year. It seems that she had somehow evaded having a gym class for the last three years,” Waller punctuated the last three words.

Felicity cringed.

Oliver rolled his eyes. But why did she have to be in this class?

“I expect you to have gym clothes tomorrow, Ms. Smoak.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Today you will sit on the bleachers.”

“I’m sure she can handle whatever we’re doing Coach,” Oliver blurted out.

Felicity glared at him, “I have other classes today, Oliver, and I can’t go to them sweaty and disgusting.”

He scoffed, “You’re being a big-”

Coach Waller blew her whistle loud in their ears, “Smoak to the bleachers, Queen to the floor, stretches, now.”

He grumbled, but did what his teacher said. His butt hit the floor and he started to do his stretches. He reached his fingers towards his toes, but the movement stretched the skin of his hands, straining the cuts and bruises. Breathing through his nose, he did his best not to wince. There was no need to show weakness.

After several minutes of stretching, Coach Waller called them all to a basket full of hockey sticks.

“Indoor hockey since it’s raining today,” she rolled her eyes as if the weather were an inconvenience to her, “Queen and Allen, team captains, go.”

They picked their teams and grabbed onto their equipment. Waller dropped an oversized puck on the floor and the game started.

Oliver immediately smacked the puck away from Barry. He skated it across the floor and towards the “net” which was actually just some lines on the gym floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Felicity with her stupid notebook. He gritted his teeth. Part of him wanted to swing the hockey stick and sent the puck flying her way.

No, that wasn’t right. He was trying to protect innocent people. Not become like the assholes that had attacked him and his sister. Felicity was just annoying and too damn smart for her own good. How was it that she could figure it out when the police had no idea where to even start? It was almost admirable. Almost.

“Space cadet,” one of the other students snatched the puck away from him and started in the other direction.

“Shit.”

Freaking Felicity distracting him. Could she get anymore frustrating? He huffed and rejoined the game.

* * *

Oliver leaned against a brick wall. He held his bow tightly in his hands, one arrow nocked, ready to go. His green hoodie was on and the hood was up. Black gloves covered his fingers and his eyes were smeared with grease paint. He let out a shaky breath. A drug deal was going down a few feet away from him. Some young kid, younger than him, going in for some pot. If it was only pot he might let it slide, but this slimeball was trying to con him into buying something harder.

He whipped around the corner and aimed the arrow at the drug dealer, “That’s enough,” he growled in a tone that was much lower than his usual voice.

“Shit, man, never mind,” the kid took off.

“You just cost me a sale,” the drug dealer snarled.

Oliver fired at his feet, the arrow hit directly between them, “That was a warning.” 

“Listen, punk,” the other man started towards him.

Oliver reached for his quiver and grabbed another arrow. Quickly, he nocked it and aimed for his assailant. There was a momentary flare of panic. He couldn’t kill this man. As awful as he was, he couldn’t take another life. He hesitated long enough that the drug dealer lunged forward and tried to take the bow from him.

Oliver swung his fist and nailed him in the mouth. It hurt, but he didn’t stop. His arrow fell and he used the bow to get in a couple more hits. He was not the best when it came to hand to hand combat. The bow and arrow were where his skills lay. After the attack he asked his parents for self defense lessons, but he had only taken a few. His abilities still left a lot to be desired, but it was enough to get him by that night.

He received a punch to the mouth. Stumbling backwards a few steps, he found his center and took a deep breath. The drug dealer staggered forward, but Oliver managed to land a good hit with his bow to the side of the head. The other man hit the ground with a thud.

“Stay down,” he growled.

He put his boot on his back and called the SCPD. There was no telling if they would actually show up and do their jobs, but he left an anonymous tip anyway. He stayed a few minutes, hoping that he would hear sirens. When he did, he picked up his stray arrow and some of whatever the guy had been selling, and took off in the direction he had come. He needed to get home and soon; he had a big track meet the next day and he didn’t want to be too groggy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know what you think!
> 
> tumblr & twitter: felicityollies


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tbh i've been hoarding this chapter for awhile i just hadn't finished the very last part bc i suck.... so here you go!!

Oliver Queen was a jerk. A big stinking jerk. But at least his behavior confirmed what she already seemed to know. Oliver Queen was also the vigilante. He had never been rude to her before, never even acknowledged her existence, but the day after she gets a warning from the vigilante and he’s all up in arms. It had to be connected.

She was going to catch him in the act. She just wasn’t sure how. Wandering the streets wasn’t a good idea. Not with how dangerous they had been lately, but maybe she could catch him doing something vigilante related. It would probably be really easy to break into the Queen mansion with how high tech it was. If it was tech, she could hack it.

If she caught him doing archery that would do it for her. No one in this day and age practiced archery the way the vigilante did. He was good and that meant he had to put a lot of work into it.

“Smoak!”

“What?” she snapped and immediately regretted it.

“On the line,” Coach Waller pointed to a spot on the gym floor.

She swallowed thickly, shuffling her feet to the spot. Her ratty sneakers squeaked against the floor. She had to put together a gym outfit quickly. It wasn’t like she could ask her mom to take her out to get something new. No, Donna was busy working endless hours to keep a roof over her head, so she dug out some old sweatpants and a t-shirt that read, algorithm: a word used by programmers when they don’t want to explain what they just did.

“Since it’s raining again today,” Waller glared towards the windows, “We’re playing war ball.”

“War ball?”

“You might know it by the name dodgeball,” she shoved a big red ball into her arms.

Coach Waller started splitting them off into teams. Felicity put the red ball down with the rest of them. They were all in a line between the two teams. When the coach blew her whistle they would all dive for a ball and try to hit each other. She was not looking forward to this at all. At least if she got hit she could go sit in jail until one of her teammates got her out.

The whistle blew and chaos ensued.

Her teammates flew forward and grabbed onto several balls. Felicity did her best to hide behind other students as she tried to sneak to get a ball.

“No hiding, Smoak,” Oliver threw a ball and hit the person she was hiding behind.

“Thanks, Felicity,” he stomped off towards jail.

She turned to shield her face as Oliver picked up another ball. He nailed her right in the butt, “Ack!” she stumbled, “You did that on purpose!”

He shrugged his shoulders and pointed towards the jail. His stupid face looked smug as hell. She was going to get him back. No more hiding behind people. She sat down on the bleachers and waited for someone to toss her a ball. It took her teammates awhile to remember she actually existed, but when they did she pushed herself up, ball in hand, and went back into the game.

She narrowed her eyes, searching for Oliver. Felicity knew she wasn’t the best aim, but she had to get him back. It was just principle. She spotted him mid throw. This was her only chance. Using both hands, she threw the ball as hard as she could. She realized too late just where it was going to hit. The ball bounced off of his head and he stumbled to the side.

Her hands went to her mouth, standing there in shock.

“Shit,” he hissed.

Coach Waller blew the whistle, “Smoak. Bleachers.”

She nodded and went to sit down. Her mouth still hanging wide open.

“Queen. Bleachers.”

“But,” Oliver whined.

“You heard me,” Waller said, “You’re out for the rest of the game.”

Oliver grumbled and sat down beside her, “Thanks a lot,” he snapped.

“You hit me first,” she hissed.

“It’s part of the game.”

“I was playing the game too.”

“You’re not supposed to aim for the head.”

“Well excuse me if the target wasn’t so big,” she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

He mimicked her pose. They both sat there quietly as the game continued. She really didn’t mean to hit him in the head, though he deserved it. Stupid, big headed brat. Maybe he wasn’t the vigilante after all. She liked what the vigilante was doing. He was taking care of the city when no one else seemed to care. She wanted to help him, but Oliver was a big pain in the freaking ass. Literally.

Everyone knew what happened to him and his sister. He had motive and access to the kinds of resources the vigilante would need to do what he did. It made sense to her, but what if she was wrong? Sitting there beside him, she was really starting to think so.

At least she saved herself from having to break into the Queen Manor. That would have been embarrassing.

Shaking her head, she pulled out her phone from her pocket and started to tap away on one of her favorite forums. She would rather have her tablet, but that didn’t exactly fit in her sweats pocket.

“What are you doing?” he asked, leaning closer.

“Nothing,” she turned away from him.

“Looks complicated.”

“Maybe to you.”

He groaned at her.

She eyed him for a second, “I’m discussing an algorithm.”

He pointed at her shirt.

She looked down and laughed a little, “Yeah, well….”

“Sounds smart,” he mumbled.

“Mhmm,” she tried not to look smug, but she was smart, “What do you want?”

“Nothing,” he turned away from her, crossing his arms.

She scoffed, “Whatever.”

Her fingers worked quickly, but she was mildly distracted by the jerk sitting beside her. She eyed Oliver again; he was sulking. She rolled her eyes.

“You know she pulled you out of the game because you’re like her prized Pyrenees,” she muttered, “She doesn’t want you out of the show.”

He turned his head and glared at her, “What?”

“A Pyrenees is a dog,” she smiled, “But what I meant was you’re the star athlete if you get hurt then her record gets tarnished.”

He grimaced.

“Although, it looks like you’ve been in an underground fighting ring….”

“Mind your business,” he snapped.

She recoiled slightly, “Jerk.”

Silence fell between them as the game continued on in front of them. Helena popped her hip and stood beside her and Oliver for a moment.

“Queen,” she muttered, “I want a repeat of last Friday night.”

Oliver smirked, “No problem.”

Felicity made a loud retching noise as soon as Helena was gone.

“What?” he snapped.

“I did not need to hear about your sex life.”

“Who said anything about sex?”

“Oh please.”

She shook her head. Yeah, she couldn’t believe she had once thought he was the vigilante. Last Friday night the Hood had been active. Maybe Oliver got his black eye from Helena getting too rough in… oh god she did not want to think about that. She shuddered and focused on her phone.

* * *

Somehow, she managed to avoid him until the following Monday. It was only a couple of days, but she considered it a feat.

She thought she was going to do well for the entire week, but she was sorely mistaken.

“Smoak,” Oliver said as he sat down at her very empty lunch table.

She narrowed her eyes at him, “What?”

“You’re smart, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you help me with something…. it’s uh school related.”

Felicity continued to glare at him, but waited for him to continue. He pulled out a small vial and passed it over to her.

“It’s for a biology class…. I need to know what’s in it.”

She picked up the vial and held it close to her face. The liquid inside was a strange color and density.

“Are you sure this is for a biology class?” she asked, “Sounds more like chemistry….”

“That’s what I meant,” he smiled.

She did not believe him for a moment, but part of her wanted to take on the challenge. He was a jerk, but who was she to say no something interesting.

“And how am I supposed to find the components of… this?”

“We can go into the chem lab right now.”

Felicity looked down at her half eaten lunch. She wasn’t sure if her mother had had time to go grocery shopping. It was a rarity sometimes. Donna worked eighty hours a week and barely had time to sleep. Most of the time, she found it very frustrating that her mother was never home. Not that they had anything to talk about. Donna didn’t understand any of the, as she called it, techy talk. Felicity was lucky that her mother even managed to listen well enough and save enough money to buy her some of the tech she requested for her birthday.

Shaking her thoughts away, she handed the vial back to Oliver, “I’ll meet you there.”

As soon as he was gone, she ate the rest of her lunch as fast as she could. She ran off out the door Oliver had gone through and towards the chemistry labs. It was strange to be working on something with him. She didn’t like him, didn’t really trust him, but her curiosity and need for something new was getting the better of her.

Felicity peaked her head inside the lab and found him poking at one of the machines, “If you don’t know what it is, you probably shouldn’t be touching it.”

He pulled his hand away from it.

“You know I’m not a chemist, right?” she asked, sitting down in front of a microscope. She was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to be in there, but whatever, could they really yell at them for doing school work? “Computers are more my thing, but breaking down the chemical composition of whatever is inside this little vial should be interesting.”

Felicity took the vial from him again and spilled a small drop onto a microscope slide. Sliding it under the lens, she leaned forward and adjusted the microscope until she could see. She frowned because she assumed it would be something simple like water mixed with food coloring and gelatin, but it wasn’t.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“This is some complex stuff,” she mumbled, “Look,” she moved out of the way.

He stared at her for a moment before leaning in, “What am I looking at?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes, grabbing a pen and paper from her bag she drew it out for him, “This is what I thought we were going to be looking at,” she pointed to the drawing of water molecules, “But this is what we’re seeing,” she pointed to the unknown compound.

“Do you know what it is?”

“No, I’d probably need a mass specht or something to figure that out.”

He stared at her again.

“I’d need a lot more fancy equipment than I can get in a school lab.”

“What if I could get you into the labs at Queen Consolidated?”

It was her turn to stare, “Are you sure this is a project for school….”

“Yes,” he said without hesitation.

“Okay….”

“Great, I’ll take you there after school,” he turned and left before she could say anything else.

She sighed again as she started to clean up their mess, “What are you getting me into, Oliver Queen?”

* * *

Oliver knew it was weird to ask Felicity for help, but she was basically the smartest person in the school. He wanted to know what these drug dealers selling; he wanted to know as much information he could about the substance and find a way to stop them. They were scum and needed to be taken off of the streets. He was playing a very dangerous game, asking Felicity to help him. She was already close to figuring out what he was up to, but he was pretty sure he was doing a good enough job lying to her.

He brought her to QC and took her down to the science labs. It was easy enough for him to get in, being the son of the CEO, and it was equally easy for him to free up one of the machines that Felicity needed.

“Should we be doing this?” she asked.

“Why not?”

“Well, these people are supposed to be doing jobs….”

He sighed, knowing that she was right, but not wanting to admit it. Begrudgingly, he mumbled, “Fine, we’ll come back after hours.”

Oliver apologized, very quietly, and led her down the hall towards the vending machines. If they had to hang out, they might as well get something to eat.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“You don’t have to do that.”

He frowned, “It’s just a snack.”

“I….” she sighed, “The potato chips are fine…”

She seemed so hesitant about taking something from him. It was weird, but he decided not to think too much about it. He put the money in the slot and threw the chips at her. Oliver grabbed a bag of Nutter Butter cookies for himself. He wasn’t really supposed to eat junk, but he would just add another thirty minutes onto his usual workout routine later.

They sat around waiting for the workers to be finished in the break room. The silence was thick, only periodically being broken by the sound of bags crinkling and food crunching between their teeth.

“Couldn’t you have asked someone else to help you?” Felicity finally asked.

He shrugged, biting a cookie in half.

She rolled her eyes, “Tommy… maybe.”

He scoffed. She was baiting him, but she wasn’t going to stop until he gave in, “You know you’re like the smartest person in school,” he muttered, eliciting a smug grin from her, “It’s annoying.”

The grin faltered just slightly, “If it’s so annoying, I can leave.”

He swallowed hard, “I didn’t mean…”

“Maybe you should think before you speak.”

“If you weren’t so smug,” he snapped.

“You’re one to talk. You act like the king of the world.”

“I don’t.”

They glared at each other from across the table. Tension rose, electricity riding the air.

“You used to a lot more than you do now,” Felicity leaned back in her seat.

He frowned further, tossing the other half of his cookie into his mouth. She didn’t expand on what she meant. It was probably better that way. They went back to being quiet, finishing up their snacks. The rest of the time was filled with typing away on their phones. Oliver was busy reading up on the news he had missed during school. He had no idea what Felicity was doing. Probably something nerdy.

“Mr. Queen,” the QC staff he had spoken to before, stepped inside the doorway, “The equipment is free.”

“Thank you…. uh…” he had no idea what the man’s name was, “Thank you.”

The guy nodded and stepped back out of the room.

Felicity gave him a look.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she muttered, “Let’s get this over with.”

A lot more waiting came with using the fancier equipment. He had no idea how all of this stuff worked, but Felicity at least seemed to know the gist of it. When the results came back, she looked over it for him.

“This stuff is toxic,” she whispered, “Why would the school give it to you?” she asked, looking up at him with seemingly worried eyes. He didn’t believe she was worried for him, though.

He shrugged again, “Can you do one more thing for me?” he asked as he looked over the ingredients in the drug.

“Okay…” she said hesitantly.

“Can you find out where it was made?”

“Is that part of the assignment?”

“Yes.”

“Theoretically, I should be able to trace the ingredients to where they are in abundance and…”

He stared at her.

“Get me a computer.”

“Can you uh… make your search unfindable…”

“Do you mean, can I clean up after myself so no one knows what we were doing on a company computer?”

He nodded.

“Child’s play,” she chuckled.

Oliver knew he’d made the right decision in choosing her for help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know what you think!!
> 
> tumblr & twitter: felicityollies


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